Microsoft today detailed what kinds of punishments it has in store for players who engage in bad behavior on Xbox Live in the not-too-distant future. Players will have reputation levels, and when those levels fall to the ‘needs work’ category will get "reputation warnings" from Microsoft.

The purpose of these warnings "is to remind players about their effect on the community and encourage them to have more positive interactions." But if those warnings go unheeded and bad behavior continues, Microsoft says that it will start taking away certain privileges such as Twitch broadcasting and will limit matchmaking in games. To get those penalties, your reputation would need to sink to the "avoid me" category.

"By looking at someone’s Gamercard you’re able to quickly see their reputation," Xbox Live program manager Micheal Dunn said. "The more hours you play fairly online without being reported as abusive by other players, the better your reputation will be. The algorithm looks to identify players that are repeatedly disruptive across the community on Xbox Live."

"We designed the algorithm so it won’t penalize you for bad reports over a few weeks of play. The system also adjusts for false reports from people that might intentionally report someone of greater skill or for other griefing purposes," he continued. "At the end of the day, our goal is to match you with other gamers you’ll enjoy, and create the best gaming community online."

Comments

"The system also adjusts for false reports from people that might intentionally report someone of greater skill or for other griefing purposes."

I wonder how good the system here is for identifying this. The fighting game community is absolutely horrendous (for more reasons than one), and seems to have no shame in doing this. Get into a curb stomp battle with someone of higher skill? Report them, and give them negative feedback. I'd like to see the system identify people who have a habit of doing this and punish them accordingly.